OBS-Classic: Official Quick Start Guide

If you're new to streaming and aren't entirely sure what you're doing, you should check out the Overview Guide instead. If you have any further questions after reading this, you should check out the FAQ first.

Perform a Speedtest to find your upload speed. Set your Max Bitrate to a little bit underneath that or around 3000, whichever of the two is lower. Example is if you have a 1.50mbps upload, Max Bitrate is good around 1000 - 1100.

Custom Buffer Size

Leave this disabled.

Use CBR

Default is on. Don't change this unless you have a good reason to do so.

Codec

AAC is fine for most people.

Audio Bitrate

Default is 128. Decrease if you have a poor network connection.

Broadcast Settings

An example for Twitch.tv:
Mode: Livestream
Service: Twitch
Server: Select from the dropdown.
Get your stream key from http://twitch.tv/broadcast/dashboard/streamkey and enter it into the Stream Key box. Configure your reconnect time and delay if necessary.

Mode: File Output Only (Livestream is also possible)File Path: Select the output folder for your recorded files.

Advanced

Custom x264 Encoder Settings: on
Enter "crf=20" in the field below without the "". Lower values result in a higher quality.

Video

Base Resolution

Should be fine at your native resolution.

Resolution Downscale

The actual resolution that gets encoded and streamed. Use this to set the resolution of your stream.

FPS

Default at 30. Increase if you have a good computer and network connection, decrease if you have a poor computer and/or network connection. Minimum you should use is 15.

Audio

Microphone

Select your microphone if you're using one. Set up push-to-talk or mute/unmute hotkeys if you need them.

Mic/Aux Boost

If you have a particularly quiet mic, you can boost the volume of it. This will often make any white noise, such as your computer fan, more apparent.

Advanced

x264 CPU Preset

It's generally recommended to leave this at veryfast, as it gives the best balance of quality and speed. If you have a bit slower processor and it's using a lot of CPU, you can try superfast or ultrafast, however it will decrease quality. Some people with high speed CPUs like to set this to faster to try to increase quality, but it doesn't really give much all that much benefit.

Do not touch anything else in Advanced unless you absolutely know what you're doing.

Scenes and Sources

Now you'll want to start off by right clicking in the white box under Scenes: and add a scene if there is none listed yet.

Next, you'll right click in the Sources: box and add what you want to capture, whether it's a specific window, a capture card or game.

If you're using a webcam/capture card and multiple scenes that use it, it is recommended you make it a Global Source, by clicking the button on the right to open the Global Sources list and adding it to there. Then add it to your Scenes by right clicking the Source menu and doing Add Global Source.

To move sources around, start a preview and use the edit scene button. If you later on change the Base-Resolution of OBS, you will have to re-align or re-size the sources. Changing the downscale does not have this effect.

Now its time to start testing, are the settings working, is the stream running smooth? If you have problems, start a thread in the Help section of this forum, be sure to include a log file.